A texting app turned off its spellchecker, and people became very lax with their spelling accuracy.
When Blend, a group texting app, paused autocorrect for 72 hours, about one-third of all words were misspelled, according to News 1130.
Blend has a heavily young user base, and “weird,” “definitely,” and Budweiser were victimized.
Double-letter words, misspellings due to keyboard proximity, and the time of day caused a struggle, according to Business Insider. When millennials were tired, their accuracy plummeted, though they would include an asterisk to indicate a known misspelling.
Given the casualness of texting, the results aren’t surprising. Clarity matters more than proper grammar, and a friend group isn’t likely to spurn a botched word unless it’s particularly egregious. Problem words varied by geographic region, and the worst spelling skills were in Brooklyn, Dallas, San Mateo, California; and Fort Worth, Texas.
Luckily for the young, spelling isn’t a crucial skill anymore. The era of autocorrect saves them the necessity of memorizing as many spelling rules. Grammar remains tricky, as autocorrect tends to miss more grammar errors than spelling ones. With the advent of autocorrect, however, millennials look like better wordsmiths than they are, and “easily rendered thought” has reached new heights.
